Kuang Shimin pointed out one by one on the map and informed An Yi of the battle situation of the right column. An Yi was surprised and admired General Li Zongren's commanding ability. He was also impressed by the tyrannical combat power of the Fourth and Seventh Armies from Guangdong and Guangxi.
Learn more.
The four brigades of the Seventh Army forcibly crossed the Miluo River and occupied Qinchuan, Chang'an Bridge, Lishi Bridge, and Tanjiafang on the north bank. After that, they marched together without stopping and drove the fleeing enemy troops into the mountainous area to the north. The battle of the Seventh Army began.
And enter mountain warfare.
Most of the thousands of defeated enemy troops came from the plain area of Zhilu and Henan. Entering the high mountains and narrow paths in the south, it was even more difficult. Walking into the vast mountains was like walking into the Bagua formation, and it was difficult to distinguish the southeast from the northwest. Most of the seventh officers and soldiers came from the southwest.
In the mountainous areas, I have been climbing barefoot over the mountains and ridges since I was a child. Coupled with the vastly different morale, I easily captured thousands of prisoners and seized a large number of weapons and ammunition.
Under the encouragement of Li Zongren, the officers and men of the Seventh Army did not stop, and the powerful forces from all walks of life traveled day and night. They arrived at Beigang, an important town in northern Hunan on the 23rd, and successfully rejoined the officers and men of the Fourth Army, and discussed for a while to continue the attack.
The brave and skillful Fourth Army also achieved many results. On the 19th, it captured Pingjiang and forced the enemy general Lu Yun to commit suicide in hatred. The soldiers of the Fourth Army who pursued the victory almost stepped on the heels of the more than 10,000 remnants of the enemy who were panicking and just ran away. When they caught up with Dashaping,
Nearly 10,000 enemies have been wiped out and countless captured. The enemy defenders along the way were beaten to pieces and fled after hearing the wind.
The officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army watched the enemy's tens of thousands of men fleeing to the northwest. They did not hesitate to launch their troops in pursuit, and even crossed their own battle zone and entered the offensive line of the Seventh Army.
Seeing this, Li Zongren made mistakes and quickly ordered the soldiers of the Seventh Army under his command to adjust their direction and enter the Fourth Army's theater. The two armies passed each other north of Dashaping, and they crossed and changed positions beautifully. On the 24th, they both attacked to the south of Tingsi Bridge.
area, completely cutting off the railway and highway traffic between Hunan and Hubei, and the enemy forces in Hunan completely became a turtle in a jar.
The astonishing speed and brilliant achievements of the Fourth and Seventh Armies made the Northern Expeditionary Army headquarters extremely happy, and also made all the friendly forces sigh with admiration.
Li Zongren commanded the Fourth and Seventh Armies to advance steadily towards Tingsi Bridge, while reporting the results to the Northern Expedition Headquarters. Finally, he mentioned that the Seventh Army's units were too fast to capture the large number of remnants of the enemy who had fled into the mountains, and requested the headquarters' follow-up troops to clear them out.
Avoid killing innocent civilians.
So, there was this unexpected mission from Anyi Camp.
An Yi briefly discussed with Kuang Shimin, then called Hu Hu, Yin Jinan, six company lieutenants, and instructors, and directly hung the newly issued combat map on the tree:
"Everyone, the current situation has changed. The right column commanded by General Li Zongren has captured all the areas south of the Tingsi Bridge, cutting off the traffic arteries between Hunan and Hubei in one fell swoop. It will surely reach the head of the Tingsi Bridge within three days.
The main force of our division still needs to follow the Eighth Army, the main force of the left column, to go north along both sides of the railway, attack the line from Yanglousi to Puqi, and eliminate the desperate remaining enemies. The two divisions of the Eighth Army have already taken the train to move north quickly at 8:00 am.
The main force of our division will start setting off at two o'clock in the afternoon.
Based on the established combat plan of the headquarters, the main force of our division cannot take into account the task of clearing out the remnant enemies on the right wing. In order to avoid unnecessary suspicion and misunderstanding by the friendly forces and ensure that the left column uses strong strength to deter and attack the more than 30,000 remnant enemies on the Yanglousi front line, the division
After studying it with all the officers, we decided to take advantage of the favorable opportunity our battalion had just organized to give the officers and men of the first and second companies of our battalion a training opportunity to quickly penetrate along the joints of the left and right columns to clear out the scattered enemy remnants.
At that time, the response will be in the area south of Yanglousi in the north. Due to baggage and other reasons, the third company still needs to act together with the organs directly under the division headquarters under the leadership of instructor Yin Jinan."
When the brothers heard this, they were immediately happy. Only a few brothers from the third company looked sad.
Yin Jinan stepped forward to look at the map carefully, and sat on the stone in front of the map with great reluctance. He knew clearly that the division headquarters asked his third company of engineers to march with the directly affiliated agencies.
He said in a high-profile manner that our division did not take any unauthorized actions. We used the daring An Yi to lead two companies of brothers to eliminate the remaining enemies, with the aim of recruiting as many prisoners of war as possible and strengthening ourselves.
After pondering for a moment, Yin Jinan ordered his company deputy Chen Zhibiao and instructor Yang Fei to immediately lead the brothers back to the camp to make food and make all preparations before departure.
An Yi also sent several company mates from the 1st and 2nd companies, and the instructor led the team back to get ready, and sat around with Kuang Shimin, Huzi and Yin Jinan to discuss in low voices.
Ten minutes later, Kuang Shimin, who was responsible for leading the third company to follow the division headquarters, happily went to the third company with Yin Jinan. An Yi and Hu Zi rode horses to the division headquarters, and soon met Liu She and Hu Shusen who were inspecting the preparations for departure.
and Xu Tingyao and others.
Several bosses squatted in the open space, listened to several suggestions and requests from An Yi, and after a brief discussion, they all agreed, and gave An Yi's task force the power to "disposal on an emergency basis".
Don't underestimate this "ad hoc decision". Although it doesn't sound unusual, the granting of this power means that An Yi can make decisions with confidence and even kill any local armed forces that hinder his actions.
At one o'clock at noon, An Yi and Hu Hu led 204 officers and soldiers of the 1st and 2nd companies to quietly leave the camp and set off north.
Since the road here is complicated and requires climbing over mountains and ridges, An Yi and his party can only march on foot, which will be a huge test for this newly organized unit that has not yet been adjusted.
At night, the task force marched quickly eastward, passing through Taolin and Yashan to camp at Qingxi Village northeast of Zhongzhen.
Five and a half hours of walking on the 24-kilometer mountain road made the brothers very tired. After having a full meal at the landlord's house in the village, the brothers all went to sleep under the wide eaves in front of the landlord's main house. An Yi walked towards the man who had followed him all the way.
The guide took out two oceans and stuffed them into his hand, thanking him for saving his team a lot of unnecessary mistakes.
The honest and honest middle-aged guide said nothing and kept saying, "Sir, your troops have been stationed in our village for a few days without committing any crimes. They also helped our village widen two paths and build a wooden bridge. We are poor and have nothing to give you. Take it easy."
I will never charge you a penny for taking the lead, otherwise your conscience will be unsatisfactory and the villagers will stab you in the back.
An Yi insisted that he accept it, saying that when you pass by Taolin Town, buy some sugar cookies for the children in the village. It can be regarded as bringing some fun to the children in the village. The guide who spoke plainly was speechless and accepted the money and wiped it with his hands.
Tears turned and left.
The landowner surnamed Zeng saw everything and waited for the guide to leave. He ordered the maid to bring tea and snacks and politely invited An Yi and Hu Hu to the main hall to talk.
The guests and hosts sat down humbly. Landlord Zeng, who had a rosy face and three long scholar's beards, asked kindly: "Two sirs, why did you come to this remote ravine of ours?"
An Yi put down his tea cup and briefly informed him about the Fourth and Seventh Army's defeat of the Zhili Army, and then told him the purpose of his party:
"...We can't let those defeated soldiers harm the place, so our troops were ordered to go into the mountains to clean up. It is also a good deed to ensure peace in the area. Please give me your support, Uncle Zeng."
Lao Zeng felt very happy when he heard An Yi call him uncle: "It's rare that you praise me so highly, but I am so disrespectful, haha! My dear nephew, since the reign of Kangxi to now, no army has ever arrived within a hundred miles of our area.
Even the all-pervasive Taiping Heavenly Kingdom banditry did not spread to us. This is your first time, and there are many of our Hunan children among your subordinates, so I have the courage to leave you here today. I just don’t know how to be wise.
How long will my nephew be stationed here, and how will he suppress the bandits? If there is a need for grain and grass taxes, I will gather five hundred villagers tomorrow morning to work together, but we have many mountains and few fields here, and the output is really limited!"
An Yi and Hu Hu smiled at each other: "Uncle Zeng, you misunderstood. My nephew's team was founded by Mr. Zhongshan and a revolutionary team led by General Jiang Zhongzheng. We are different from the old warlords and will not let you and the fellow villagers pay taxes and donate food."
, and we will also pay for the meal we are kindly served by you today. Please ask Uncle Zeng to ask people to make dry rice before dawn tomorrow morning. It would be better to add some meat and fish. If it is convenient, check it out for my nephew and brothers.
Wherever there is bacon and fish, we will pay the full amount after it is delivered, and we will never let the villagers suffer any loss. Once these things are done, we will leave immediately. We are pressed for time and cannot stay long!"
Old Zeng was greatly surprised: "This... it's all easy to say. I will immediately instruct my servants to collect some cured meats from house to house. However, I would like to ask, my dear nephew, where are you going tomorrow?"
"To be honest with Uncle Zeng, we need to hire a guide tomorrow. We plan to go northeast, first to Shuanggang and then east to Daping. That is the edge of the battlefield of our right army. It is estimated that the defeated enemy troops are in that area." An
Yi comes truthfully.
Old Zeng shook his head, raised his hand and waved it several times: "Two wise nephews, please forgive me for speaking bluntly, you can't reach Daping Town even if you walk like this for a month, because east of Shuanggang is a hundred miles long and inaccessible.
The mountains are so high that it has never been heard of anyone being able to climb those two thousand-foot-high mountains since ancient times. The normal way to go is to go all the way north over Ma'an Ridge to Aubei Bay, and then turn south and follow the carriage road to Daping. If you are not afraid of high mountains
The road is dangerous, and there is another trail. This road is rarely known to the outside world except for the local villagers. It starts from our village and goes to the east of Shuanggang Village, which is ten miles to the north. Don't enter the village. Go straight north for another ten miles. There is a three-mile road on the left.
The trail is more than ten feet long. After entering the trail and climbing over a low mountain for a few miles, you will see a clear mountain pond of 100 acres. There is a small village with more than ten households to the north of the pond. Once you get there, it will be easier. From there
There is a little-known trail to Daping, and it only takes an hour to reach the town, haha! I wonder which path my nephew wants to take?"
An Yi and Hu Hu were overjoyed and immediately took out the map from their briefcase. Lao Zeng loudly ordered the maid to light another oil lamp, and the three of them gathered around the Eight Immortals table and whispered.
After reading the map, Lao Zeng admired it and said that the map was good, but it was a pity that many roads were not marked.
An Yi immediately took out the pen, unscrewed it and handed it to Lao Zeng. Lao Zeng was not polite and said that he was too playful when he was young and could do anything within a hundred miles. For this, he was beaten up countless times by the old man, and he drew seriously.
An Yi and Hu Zi were grateful for the trails and the names of seven or eight small villages. They finally realized the benefits of treating people well and relying on them.
The three of them continued talking happily, when the young housekeeper suddenly rushed in, ran to Lao Zeng's side, and whispered anxiously into his ear.
Lao Zeng was shocked after hearing this. He stood up and tremblingly walked towards An Yi and Hu Hu, who were full of doubts: "My dear nephew, it's terrible. Beicun has been looted by rogue bandits..."
An Yi and Hu Hu were also shocked: "Uncle Zeng, don't worry, where is Beicun you mentioned? When was it robbed?"
"Beicun is Shuanggang Village ten miles north! My little girl just got married last month..."